When the Little Henry video was posted, it had already been a couple weeks since we last saw him/her. Judging by its rotund appearance, we surmised that it in fact may be a pregnant she, and could be with nesting, hence the absence.
Several weeks went by with no sign of the creature. Then in the living room we started occasionally detecting the faint sickly-sweet odor of organic corruption. Uh-oh.
This continued on and off for more weeks, but always very faint if present at all. I think I knew what it was pretty early on, but wasn’t in a great hurry to find it. Even after several investigations of corners and under furniture, the smell came and went with no apparent source.
Frustrated, the other day I expanded my search to include some yet-unchecked, and seemingly unlikely places. Turning the couch over revealed nothing, looking under fabrics on the floor near the sewing shelves revealed…the small, dessicated remains of our cohabitant. Looking toward Stephanie I casually asked her if the smell was, in fact, Henry, would she want to know. She nodded, and I lifted a fold of red fabric and pointed with the flashlight.
Examining the remains revealed that it was, in fact, a she. No pregnancy was evident, or cause of death. Whether she had somehow been smothered (doubtful), or died from age or disease won’t be known. Neither will the question of whether she left a nest of babies.
Of some consolidation is the knowledge that she did have a fairly comfortable and fortunate existence in stumbling into our place, and certainly brought some cheer and entertainment over the winter months.
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